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A fifth “Game of Thrones” prequel series is officially in development at HBO. Bryan Cogman, who has been onboard the main series since its first season, has been set to pen the project.

Previously it has been confirmed that four prequels were in development at the network with creator George R.R. Martin saying back in May that a fifth was also in the works but wouldn’t say with whom.

Details for the five projects are being kept under tight guard, though Martin has indicated each project is a prequel rather than a spinoff with none of the current main cast to be involved.

The writers previously announced for the four other projects are Max Borenstein (“Kong: Skull Island”), Jane Goldman (“Kingsman: The Golden Circle”), Brian Helgeland (“Legend”), and Carly Wray (“The Leftovers”).

HBO programming chief Casey Bloys has indicated that they’re developing so many series in the hopes that “one of them is actually good enough to come to fruition”. Whichever goes forward, it’s unlikely to air until 2020 at the earliest.

In related news, HBO has released a 4.5 minute sneak peek of the 45-minute animated series “Game of Thrones Conquest & Rebellion” which looks at Aegon Targaryen’s conquest of the Seven Kingdoms. The entire work is available as a bonus gift for pre-ordering the show’s seventh season Blu-ray.

What an excellent day for an exorcism

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Filming on the final season of “Game of Thrones” continues ahead of that eighth season’s run on the premium cabler in early 2019. As has been reported many times, work is also under way on five proposed prequels to the blockbuster fantasy series with only one incarnation likely to go forward if it happens.

Bloys tells Deadline that fans should not expect the last season of ‘Thrones’ to be used to as a launchpad for a prequel series:

“There is not going to be anything in any scenario where we have any sort of prequel air for at least a year after that. I want the final season of Game of Thrones to be the final season of Game Of Thrones, I don’t want to use it to launch something else, I want it to stand as the finale of the greatest tv show of all time, I don’t want to do anything that infringes on that.”

Bloys wouldn’t confirm the long-standing rumor that each of the final six episodes would come in at a feature length runtime. He also says there is no update on creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss’s follow-up HBO series “Confederate” as the pair are fully engaged in ‘Thrones’ right now and “it’s going to be a year, year and a half before there is anything.”